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February 1st, 2018
BLM also does away with popular master leasing plan program
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2018
Contact: Steve Bloch, Legal Director, 801.428.3981 or 801.859.1552(c)
Landon Newell, Staff Attorney, 801.428.3991
Salt Lake City, UT –Today, the Bureau of Land Management released new policy guidance for how the agency will approach oil and gas leasing on public lands.
In response to the new policy announcement, Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), released the following statement.
“Today’s sweeping change to BLM’s oil and gas leasing program threatens irreplaceable federal public lands and resources in Utah and across the west. “This ‘lease first, think later’ approach is fundamentally inconsistent with federal laws that demand agencies think before they act and consider the full range of impacts from selling oil and gas leases. Utah’s redrock wilderness is one the places directly in the crosshairs from this misguided policy, and SUWA expects to be fighting it in the trenches and the courts over the coming months and years.”
The new policy represents a sea change in how the BLM will handle oil and gas leasing on federal public lands in Utah and across the west. This new direction includes shortening timeframes for protests, expediting NEPA reviews, making public participation in the leasing process optional, and mandating a top-down, Washington, D.C. review before any state office can defer the sale of new leases.
The new policy also announces that the popular master leasing plan program has been terminated. In 2016, BLM finalized the Moab master leasing plan with support from local governments, the outdoor recreation industry, and conservationists. While the Moab plan remains in place, the BLM’s previous plans to complete several other MLPs in Utah are now derailed.
BLM entered into this policy as part of a sweetheart deal in a settlement with the Western Energy Alliance in a pending case in federal court in New Mexico. Conservation groups, including SUWA, are parties to that case but were not included in any settlement discussions.
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January 30th, 2018
The Bureau of Land Management in Utah is ramping up a failed policy called chaining—in which bulldozers drag anchor chains to uproot and destroy native pinyon and juniper forests and sagebrush.
Why do they do this? To create more forage for cattle on public lands.
And now, under the Trump administration, the BLM wants to chain in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The practice of chaining is so unbelievable that most people can’t imagine how destructive it is. That’s why SUWA has launched a new statewide television campaign in Utah—to focus attention on the BLM’s destructive practice and stop the agency from wrecking Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Click below to watch SUWA’s new television ad and take action:
Chaining is a scientifically-unsound practice that wastes millions of taxpayer dollars to effectively destroy thousands of acres of Utah’s public land.
While the BLM is constantly churning out new reasons as to why chaining and other vegetation removal projects need to happen, the real drivers appear to be the same as they were in the 1960s: improving grazing forage for cattle and bringing money to the BLM field offices.
And now, the BLM is proposing chaining as one of the primary methods to remove vegetation on over 13,000 acres in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
But chaining is completely incompatible with protecting the fragile ecological, paleontological, and archaeological resources in Grand Staircase. To say that chaining in Grand Staircase is wildly inappropriate would be an understatement. This is a bad proposal based on bad science that will only produce a bad outcome.
Click here to learn more—and tell the BLM to stop chaining our public lands.Thank you for taking action.
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January 30th, 2018
We need your eyes and ears.
President Trump’s orders to rescind Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments and replace them with dramatically smaller monuments has stripped protections for over two million acres of land.
We believe Trump’s orders are illegal and have filed two lawsuits challenging his drastic reductions of both monuments.
Until the courts rule on these lawsuits, SUWA will work to defend all lands within the original Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments from any harm.
You can help by participating in Monument Watch.
When you visit lands within the original, legal boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-National Monuments, watch for any action that may disturb, or is disturbing, the natural setting or archaeological sites. If you live in southern Utah, listen and watch for any evidence that such an action is being planned or initiated.
If you see or hear anything suspicious, file a report immediately with SUWA.
With your help, we will defend Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments from harm.
Thank you for helping to watch our national monuments!
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January 12th, 2018
In response to the announcement today by the Bureau of Land Management that it will begin to prepare Monument Management plans for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, which were illegally modified by President Trump on December 4, 2017, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance executive director Scott Groene issued the following statement:
“It is absurd for Secretary Zinke to double down on President Trump’s illegal proclamations by instructing the Bureau of Land Management to rush forward writing management plans for monuments that will inevitably be overturned by the courts. Trump’s proclamations aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, and this effort is a waste of time and tax-payer money. BLM should remain focused on the task at hand: protecting the remarkable cultural and natural resources in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.”
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January 4th, 2018
As you know, one month ago President Trump issued an unlawful order to repeal the Bears Ears National Monument and replace it with two smaller monuments—leaving nearly 80% of the original monument unprotected.
That same day, Representative John Curtis (UT-03) introduced H.R. 4532, the “Shash Jaa National Monument and Indian Creek National Monument Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives. This terrible bill would ratify Trump’s illegal repeal of the Bears Ears—and make his unlawful order permanent.
Please contact your members of Congress and tell them to oppose this bill!
White Canyon, one of the areas left unprotected by Trump’s repeal of Bears Ears National Monument. Copyright Jeff Clay
Rep. Curtis’s bill seeks to create a management scheme for the monument that would be dictated by parochial local interests—effectively taking all power away from the Bears Ears Commission of Tribes.
Help us stop this bill by taking action now!
This horrendous legislation is being given a hearing on Tuesday, January 9th, and may move quickly through committee and onto the House floor. If it passes both chambers and becomes law, it will be even worse for Bears Ears than Trump’s executive order last month.
Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Contact your representative and senators today!